Educator Forever

Patrick Mongrain spent ten years teaching middle school history and leadership, and another ten working as as a district-level instructional coach and restorative justice specialist before moving on to professional development. Over the years he’s come to believe that teachers are incredible, but he also created a Moneyball-inspired data collection system to improve their outcomes. It’s worked so...

Dr. Rick Rodriguez is a first generation Mexican American who has lived through and acknowledges the challenges that individuals and communities of color face across our systems. Guided by these experiences, he co-founded the Rooted Life, a bilingual coaching and consulting business that incorporates research-based frameworks to trigger thinking, strategy, and collaboration. Rick and I had a long...

Dana Anderson teaches digital citizenship, language arts, and literature to Middle and High School students at Bridgemont International School. She's also served as a kids' and teens' digital content expert for non-profits, tech companies, teacher training programs and schools. Dana is also a writer, a nature and animal lover, and a mom of three. In this episode we discuss Dana's educator journey...

Kirk Spahn is a fourth generation educator with more than two decades in the field. After graduating from Dartmouth College, he worked for schoolmaster.net, an early online learning platform based in London. But it was the events of Sept. 11 that inspired him that inspired him to start the Institute for Civic Leadership (ICL), an award winning youth educational nonprofit organization.. In this epi...

Dr. Emily Levy is the founder and director of EBL coaching, a specialized tutoring program that offers individualized one on one, home, virtual and on site instruction using research based multi sensory techniques. In this episode, Dr. Levy tells me about how after teaching special education, she went to Wall Street and then back to the so-called “family business.“ She also discusses her multi-sen...

Iuri Melo is a therapist, motivational speaker, and—on particularly exciting days—a “professional teenager whisperer.” He has spent over two decades working closely with families, students and schools, and he's become a trusted voice when it comes to promoting psychological awareness, great relationships and student success. His research led to the creation of SchoolPulse , a text/email service to...

Ronnie Thomas is the founder of Fun Weird Science , an education company built on the belief that STEM lessons can apply all kinds of disciplines. A science teacher with 25 years of experience and two Teacher of the Year awards, Thomas started Weird Fun Science after developing a reputation for engaging and versatile teaching methods. In our discussion, Ronnie and I discuss the efficiency of hands...

Craig Randall is the developer and author of “Trust-Based Observations.” He has spent the last 30 plus years in education, working as a counselor, coach, teacher and principal. Now, Craig spends the majority of his time training school leaders all over the globe in the trust-based observation system, transforming the world of teacher observations to a model of trust and support that fosters growth...

Rebecca McAllister is a certified teacher, literacy specialist, and co-founder of The Active Reader. With over 10 years of classroom experience, Rebecca has always been passionate about helping young learners thrive—but it wasn’t until she became a mom that everything shifted. Teaching her daughter to read made her realize that even as an educator, she had never been shown how to teach reading in...

David Martelli is a dedicated educator and leader in STEM learning, with over 20 years of experience designing innovative educational spaces and programs. His career began in the U.S. Air Force, where he led high-tech programs before transitioning into education. As Head of Computer Science and Engineering at a school, he built a cutting-edge Makerspace, giving students hands-on experience with te...

In this episode, I speak to Shannon Russell of the Second Act Success Podcast. Russell is a career transition and business coach empowering women to leave unfulfilling careers and build joyful, purpose driven businesses. She recently published a book “Start Your Second Act: How to Change Careers, Launch a Business, and Create Your Best Life,” which comes out May 7. During our discussion, Shannon p...

This week I speak to Richard Welsh, an associate professor at Vanderbilt University and the founder of its School Discipline Lab. We talked about his new book, “ Suspended Futures: Transforming Racial Inequities in School Discipline.” The book focuses on prevalence of exclusionary discipline in schools, particularly among Black students, who are twice as likely to be suspended. The book is eye-ope...

Today’s guest is Dr. Ashley Potvin, a research associate at the Renée Crown Wellness Institute whose new book, “Creating Compassionate Change in School Communities: Leading Together to Address Everyday Suffering in Schools” comes out later this month. The book focuses on helping teachers cultivate compassion and reduce suffering in their schools — a topic we can agree is important. Before earning...

Let’s talk about what it takes to be successful as a curriculum developer. I think teachers have the best background possible. We need more people who know what it's like in the classroom to be creating curriculum. Teachers have the most relevant experience. But that's not to say that we don't need to learn other skills. In this episode I talk about what curriculum agencies look for that you can’t...

When you're looking to make a change in your life, whether it's leaving the classroom or really anything else, it can feel completely overwhelming once you’ve decided to change. What do you do? You have plenty of options, but here’s what might not be obvious: having these moments is actually how we find our way to our next chapter. On today’s episode, I explain the meaning of one of my favorite ph...

Nitin Gour is the founder and CEO of Bloomster. Bloomster is a dynamic platform that empowers students by teaching over 25 essential life skills.. Nitin started Bloomster after spending two decades in the corporate world, working first in tech and then finance. Nitin came to recognize that academic success alone isn’t enough to prepare young individuals for real-life challenges. This realization i...

Jessie Slayback and Vicky Forsman are the co-founders of REALM Since launching in 2010, REALM has been pioneering an innovative educational model. They have gone through many transitions and impacted over 3,482 lives. Currently, REALM serves 150 students, ages 5 to 15, with plans to expand. In this episode, we discuss the challenges and successes of building REALM, including financial struggles an...

Howard Gardner is the Hobbs research professor of cognition and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is a leading thinker on Education and Human Development, and has studied and written extensively about intelligence, creativity, leadership and professional ethics. A two volume of Howard's work was published in 2024 by teachers college press, the Essential Howard Gardner On Ed...

Emily Odeo-Sutton started selling on Etsy in January of 2023 and now has over 27,000 sales between her two shops. Former educator turned entrepreneur, she loves supporting new Etsy sellers on their journey to passive income with both print on demand and digital products. For this episode, Emily gives some great advice to listeners who are thinking about selling products on Etsy. Best of all, she p...

Rae Hughart is an innovative educator, speaker, and advocate for teacher wellness and professional growth. As the founder of Teachers Deserve It, she is on a mission to empower educators with sustainable strategies that enhance student success while prioritizing teacher well-being. With a background in classroom teaching, curriculum design, and leadership, Rae specializes in helping educators recl...

Katherine Hamilton is the Vice President of Programs at Ensemble Learning, where she oversees the development, implementation, and evaluation of all programmatic activities. With nearly 15 years of experience in the K-12 education space, Katherine specializes in effective teaching and learning, instructional leadership, overarching strategy to ensure equity for all student groups. In this episode,...

Nathaniel Turner is a TED speaker, author, lawyer, financial advisor, and a college and career readiness Alchemist. He is also the survivor of eight adverse childhood experiences and his challenges led him on a powerful road of self discovery, providing him the tools to show parents how to rise above childhood trials, tribulations and low societal expectations to help any child realize their hopes...

Kathleen deLaski is the founder and board chair of the Education Design Lab, which works with colleges, states, and employers to design shorter, more targeted forms of higher education. The Lab has pioneered the "micro-pathway" model with community colleges and leads work across the ecosystem to help employers look beyond college degrees to validate skills. Kathleen also founded or co-founded four...

Jesse Hartman is the co-owner of Hartman Tutoring and has over 20 years of tutoring experience. Since he started tutoring back as a student at Emory University, he has prepared students for nearly every standardized test and tutored them in every subject available. In tis episode, we discuss how Jesse sees himself as an “academic guide,” how he teaches his students learning tools that go beyond th...

In last week's episode, I talked about seeing the possibilities that are in front of you in this new year. And I think that's such an important practice for us all, to try and see all the many, or at least many of the many possibilities in front of us. So often we can start to see things in our own life so narrowly that we don't see there are so many other ways that things can be. I encourage you...